Kinston boys cruise past North Lenoir

Sunday

The Vikings opened their conference play with an 88-46 win over North Lenoir Saturday night.

Kinston jumped on North Lenoir early and never looked back as the Vikings cruised to an 88-46 victory in front of a packed house at Viking Gym Saturday night.

Kinston improved to 9-4 overall and 1-0 in the Eastern Carolina 2A, while North Lenoir fell to 5-10 and 0-1. The Vikings opened the contest with an 11-0 run, and the Hawks wouldn’t get on the board until midway through the first quarter when a John Carlton putback ended the shutout.

The Vikings led 24-6 after a quarter and 45-21 at the half, but Kinston coach Perry Tyndall said the third quarter was important for his team. The Vikings exploded for 30 points in the frame to take a 75-35 lead into the final period.

“We needed to come out, clean some things up and have a solid effort,” Tyndall said. “Overall, I thought we did that.”

Saturday’s intra-county conference opener was the Vikings’ first game since a somewhat surprising home loss to Wilson Hunt earlier in the week.

“I think sometimes people think we shouldn’t lose,” Tyndall said. “You have to give credit to Hunt. They beat us, even if we did some things we shouldn’t have done.”

Tyndall said it was important for Kinston to bounce back and come out prepared to play against the Hawks.

“A lot of teams in our conference are playing good basketball,” he said.

North Lenoir coach Anthony Loftin would certainly agree.

“They were a state championship caliber team tonight,” Loftin said of the defending 2A state champions. “Coach Tyndall had them prepared to play. They hit their jump shots; they got easy layups; Darnell (Dunn) was good on the inside. Their defense was awesome. They took us out of everything we were trying to do. I thought they played a complete game.”

The Vikings were led by 20 points from Brandon Ingram, 17 from Andrew Lopez and 14 points and eight rebounds from Dunn. Overall, 11 of 12 players who suited up for Kinston scored at least one point, and eight players had at least five points. Four Hawks players had at least nine points. Carlton led his team with 10 points, followed by Landon Letchworth, Jauquaz Jones and Javonta King with nine each.

“You always know you’re going to get a good, scrappy game out of North Lenoir, but we knocked down a lot of shots tonight,” Tyndall said.

For the Hawks, Loftin said his team had to put this game in perspective and move on.

“I think we will be alright,” he said. “All the home teams in our conference won their games. You have to take it one game at a time and take it for what it’s worth. We’ll come back.”

Both teams are off until Friday, when North Lenoir travels to Greene Central and Kinston hosts Goldsboro.